Bolshoi Opera

Works of domestic musical dramatic art firmly
established in the repertoire: at first there were operas vaudevilles and
ballets-variety entertainments based on folk melodies and stories, and later -
full-length operas, the best oI which was "Askold s Grave" by Alexei
Verstovsky.

Opera productions of Mikhail Glinka, the founder of Russian classical music, became
the most important event in the history of the Bolshoi Theater. Ao stagin: "Ivan
Sussanin" in 1842 and "Ruslan and Ludmila" in 1846 the Bolshoi Theater started
to create national classical repertoire.

In March 1853, a destructive fire failed to
exterminate only the external walls of the theater and its columned front
facade. The edifice xi.as restored and slightly reconstructed by the architect
Albert Kavos and was opened in 1856. In this appearance, my minor alterations,
it exists up to now.

The great significance to the history of the theater was provided by opera
and ballet legacy of the great Russian composer Piotr Chaikovsky. His operas
"Eugene Onegin", "The Queen of Spades", "The Cherevichki", "Maxepa", "Iolanta",
ballets "The Swan Lake", "The Sleeping Beauty" produced in 1870's - 1890's and
later - the ballet "Nutcracker" are placed on golden record of the repertoire.
In 80's and 90's of the XIX century, works of composers from "The Mighty Group"
- "Boris Godunov" by Modest Mussorgsky, "Sadko" and "The Snow Maiden" by Nikolai
Rimsky-Korsakov, "The Prince Igor" by Alexander Borodin- were produced on the
stage of the Bolshoi Theater. The history of the Bolshoi Theater numbers many
distinguished singers who were passing traditions of Russian vocal school and
actor's mastery from generation to generation.

The history of the Bolshoi Theater numbers many distinguished singers who
were passing traditions of Russian vocal school and actor's mastery from
generation to generation.

The real golden age of Russian vocal-execution
school set in at the beginning of the XX th century and was connected with
coming to the Bolshoi Theater of Leonid Sobinov, Antonina Nezhdanova, Feodor
Shaliapin.

Creative work of these great actors placed Russian
vocal-dramatic art among the best in the world.

Traditions of national
Russian ballet started to form on the Bolshoi Theater stage as far back as the
beginning of the XIX-th century and were connected with activities
ofbaIler-master Adam Glushkovsky, later - with ballet-dancers Ekaterina
Sankovskaya, Nadezhda Bogdanova, Praskovia Lebedeva, on the eve and at the
beginning of the XX th century - with Liubov Roslavleva, Adelaida Jury, Ekatenna
Gueltser, Yassili Tikhomirov, ballet-master Alexander Gorsky.

After the
year of 1917, works of Soviet composers - the operas "The Still Don-River" and
"The Upturned Virgin Soil" by Ivan Dzerzhinsky, the ballet "The Red Poppy" by
Reingold Glier - ' were produced on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater together
with the best works of Russian and foreign classical composers.